I am looking for ideas on teaching & instilling one-touch passing to improve overall speed of play. Beyond the technical drills/activities where players just one-touch to each other, what are some activities for building upon one-touch play in groups of 3-4, all the way up to full-sided play.

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When a flower doesn't bloom, fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower

Patterns where they pass and move vertically through an area and possibly end with a shot on goal are usually pretty good.

Any number of activities are good for this, I'd focus on coaching points. Depending on level: CP about body shape, receivers moving to improve their angle, 3rd-man runs, passing to the correct foot, passes weighted correctly, passer/receiver seeing and exploiting same space.

To me the first thing need to do one touch passing and speeding up play is to be able see 2-3 passes ahead. If you receive a pass but dont know what to do with it until you get it, you are slow. Players have to know what they are going to do with ball before they get it. I do a drill preseason that is fun and it gets them thinking about what they need to do before they get the ball.

On half a field split into 2 teams and play keep away. Once they get a rythem going stop play using whatever method you want but when you stop play the players also close their eyes. Now ask the player with the ball what their options are. Then go to their option and ask them what their options are. You can also ask other players even defenders what they see also. This drill gets players to start thinking what they will do before they receive that pass. They then can start seeing what the person they are passing to has for options.

One drill that helps develop quick short passing with a mix of short and long passing. The space is two end zones each with a team of players and a grid between the two end zones. The coach is to one side of the central grid with soccer balls. It starts with the coach playing a pass to one end zone (no voice commands, but players respond to seeing the coach's pass).

The team receiving the pass is to make 5 passes inside their grid and then play the ball long to the other team's end zone to get a point. The other team sends two runners to pressure and disrupt the passing. If a pass goes out or the long pass does not land in the other teams zone or the other team does not control the pass in their zone it is a point. Then the coach calls a point.

The coach can vary the quality and type of ball played into the zone to challenge the players. The runners can win the ball or make it they can tag the player with the ball. You can add restrictions on the type of pass or which foot, etc. Mostly, the game conditions encourage the players to quickly control the ball and get quick passes in before the pressure arrives. They also have to learn to create space to hit the long pass under pressure. They often hit the long pass first time.

I have used this after short-short-long to start to transition it to a game like situation.

When one team plays to the other grid they immediately send runners to pressure the other team. So, the game can go back and forth a couple times but with tight space and time pressure eventually it will go out and require the coach to restart silently. The players have to read the game decision and make the decisions of who makes the runs. The runners have to return to their own grid and cannot make a second run until two other players have made the run. Runners decide who and how to pressure. The other team has to find a way to possess the ball moving it quickly with the goal of playing to the other team's zone.

I would let them just play and then recognize when first time passing worked well. The space in the end grids is tight so it requires quick sharp economical passing for success. If necessary, you can stop and have them do a walk through a pattern of passing, or you can have them play a sequence with 2-3 touches and then play it with 1 touch and compare the length of time taken to get the 5 passes.

Since there are two runners they can work together to defend collectively.

"But if you take a touch to control the ball then the NEXT touch MUST be towards the opponents goal."

Why? What if there is a defender applying pressure in that direction. Expand on that please...

Its all about playing positive instead of getting into this awful rut of play it all the way back to the GK and reset.In possession, players have to make decisions on what they want to do with the ballThe best players are those who make these decisions BEFORE they receive the ball

So this SSG with the challenge of want to play in any direction, play it first time is getting players to scan fast around them before they receive the ball in CASE they have pressure coming in.

But if they have scanned and there is no pressure, the second challenge is to play TOWARDS the opponents goal. So, support players ahead of the receiver will be more encouraged to make forward attack runs knowing that the second touch will be played forward.

However, if the receiver controls the ball, they may well decide to go forward themselves so their next touch could simply be the start of a drive or a dribble.

The main thing is that the ball is being moved forward instead of just resetting it backwards and giving time to opponents to reorganise.

Of course it matters what the score is currently as that may well be the right decision, but in general, playing positive WILL gain success

That makes a lot of sense. Let me ask this about supporting players. Is it fair to say that as the ball arrives (or even before it arrives), supporting teammates need to be reading the defensive pressure on the receiver (or lack thereof)? For instance -

1. A1 is about to receive. A2 reads the pressure coming from D1, so moves in to provide a close support option:

D1

o A1 <- A2

2. A1 is about to receive. A2 reads that there is no immediate pressure coming, so A2 makes a run into a forward position

^ │

A2

o A1

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When a flower doesn't bloom, fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower

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